How to train (or not to train) someone...

Sometimes, when you go through something, it takes some time to tease out what exactly the problem was with certain aspects of events.  I am finding this to be true of this recent job experience and I think it will be valuable to examine going forward.

The issue that I am really thinking about is the training piece.  I worked with some folks very well there and my direct supervisors not well at all… and the latter were the ones who pretty much sealed my fate.  I did read the performance review (after fishing the pieces out of the recycling and taping it back together) and it pretty much said that I couldn’t communicate my way out of a paper bag.  It also said that they tried to train me on how to interview people over the phone but that I improved but was never good enough.  (This was among other things, many of which were pointedly personal.)

First, lack of clear training standards, benchmarks and objectives make the training process amorphous and all too subjective.  You need something more than just a checklist that says, "you should be able to do all of this stuff by 6 months" Goals should be measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-limited.  Lack of specificity allows far too many variables, based on assumptions to take precedence over clear, measurable, progressive standards.  Also, lack of clear objectives also allows for goalposts to be moved or even removed.  A trainer can make arbitrary decisions based on how they feel, as opposed to objective reality.  Telling someone “I want you to be able to carry over ‘x-skills’ to the next task may sound clear, but doesn’t begin to take into account the nuances that differ task to task.  So a “squishy” direction like that only serves to disadvantage the recipient of such instruction.  It’s hard to tell someone that they haven’t met standards when the standards are constantly changing or unclear. It puts the trainee in a situation of never feeling secure or knowing how things are going. 

Secondly, how many times do you really think you need to tell someone what needs improvement? You should be able to tell someone something and then see if they implement, then correct as needed.  To be so unsure that someone has heard you that you feel you have to hammer home a point 10 times in the same conversation only serves to both instill that lack of confidence in the trainee. It also makes them feel that lack of trust.  Gentle reminders tend to work better than a “omfg, I can’t believe you make this stupid mistake again” attitude and approach.

Third, watching over someone’s shoulder constantly makes him or her feel like a trapped animal, heightens tension and only makes him prone to more mistakes.  A person who feels trapped and afraid is much less likely to achieve the best results.

Fourth, public ridicule/reprimand is not a good training tool.  It only serves to alienate your trainee and make them more resistant to what you are trying to train them to do.  Public belittlement is also damaging to the confidence you are trying to build, it only heightens the sense of being cornered and watched.

Fifth, micromanaging is like squeezing a fistful of mud… the harder you squeeze, the more you lose hold of.

Those are some of the things that ‘went wrong ‘in my training process.  It’s taken me nearly two weeks to be able to get most of the emotional drek out of the way to begin to a clear post-mortem on it.  The good news is that a bit of analysis gives me tools that I can use moving forward.